Comment by Hnrobert42

It doesn't need to be "engineered" at all. You don't need some six+ figure person supported by a whole office of other 6 figure people to run numbers on cookie cutter stuff that's only slightly different than the last stuff. Hell, 99x/100 they're taking the numbers and then picking the closest cookie cutter beam shapes, rebar arrangements, concrete forms, etc, etc that do the job. What even is the point of having situation specific numbers if you're going to constrain your choices to finite options?

This is the kind of work that, before industry lobbyists got involved, used to be done using reference tables and all the intermediary make work didn't exist. Someone building a bridge would say the span is X, traffic is Y, and that would get them their beams, their spacing and their decking specs. From there they'd get their weight numbers and they'd cross that with the soil and get their footings.

And it's not just bridges, it's everything.

But there's too many people, too much money, and too many careers tied up in the racket and they'll screech every step of the way so it'll never get fixed until it's so flagrantly the source of problems that it's undeniable, and even then it probably won't, look at healthcare.